i said nothing when they came for the axelrod

Wall Street Journal: To Use The Word ‘Liar Is To Kill Six Million Jews

Mitt Romney stated things during the debate last week that were often in direct contravention of both reality and things he had previously stated. If you’re wondering why I don’t use the L-word (“liar,” not “lesbian”), it’s because, as Daniel Henninger states at the Wall Street Journal today, “liar” is the linguistic harbinger of fascism.

“Liar” is a potent and ugly word with a sleazy political pedigree. But “liar” is not being deployed only by party attack dogs or the Daily Kos comment queue. Mitt Romney is being called a “liar” by officials at the top of the Obama re-election campaign.

That’s shameful! What are they doing?

Politics isn’t beanbag, but politicians past had all sorts of devices to say or suggest an opponent was playing fast and loose with the truth. This week’s Obama TV ad, “How Can We Trust Mitt Romney?” would have been perfectly legit absent the Plouffe “liar” prepping.

So, the problem isn’t saying that someone is an untruthful, anti-American piece of festering shit, just don’t call them a liar. But why?

Beverly Hills surgeon explains at home fix for crepey skin around the arms, legs, and stomach.

The Obama campaign’s resurrection of “liar” as a political tool is odious because it has such a repellent pedigree. It dates to the sleazy world of fascist and totalitarian propaganda in the 1930s. It was part of the milieu of stooges, show trials and dupes. These were people willing to say anything to defeat their opposition. Denouncing people as liars was at the center of it. The idea was never to elevate political debate but to debauch it.

The purpose of calling someone a liar then was not merely to refute their ideas or arguments. It was to nullify them, to eliminate them from participation in politics.

Oh. I always thought that the milieu of fascist and totalitarian propaganda was the serial scapegoating of disfavored “others” by lying about the role they played in economic, social and cultural misfortune, then using those lies to promote violent oppression and murder. Or wait, no, that was the Obama GOTV I did last weekend. The Nazis just wandered around Poland calling Jews liars and then putting up YouTube ads.

For something so terrible, so verboten, surely nobody at the Wall Street Journal has ever called anyone a liar? Surely not James Taranto, a month ago?

OK, Clinton lied (or “misled people”) about Monica Lewinsky. Let’s even stipulate for the sake of argument that he’s a liar.

THIS IS KRISTALLNACHT ALL OVER AGAIN.

Okay, well, maybe that was a one-time thing that slipped by the WSJ’s many, many fascism watchers? Let’s see:

And his lying was entirely in character. Many politicians lie, but few match Bill Clinton (though Al Gore seems to be giving it the old college try) in the frequency or audacity of his lies. He is truly a master of prevarication — an “unusually good” liar, as Democratic Sen. Bob Kerry famously put it.

Even as a young man, Mr. Clinton was able to lie his way out of military service and then lie his way out of paying a political price for this in the conservative state of Arkansas. But even “good” liars sometimes get caught.

Serious question: is the Wall Street Journal the Fourth Reich? It’s a question that must be asked, for the sake of the republic.

Lies, dripping off your mouth like dirt
Lies, lies in every step you walk
Lies, whispered sweetly in my ear
Lies, how do I get out of here?
Why, why you have to be so cruel?
Lies, lies, lies I ain't such a fool!

Well, not just saying things that are untrue, but knowingly saying things that are untrue.

Like for example, saying you'd slash all discretionary non-defense spending by 5% across the board on day one, and then denying you'd reduce education funding. Or promising to drive through legislation defunding Planned Parenthood specifically because they provide abortion services that are not funded in any way by government monies, and then denying that your policy agenda includes anything abortion-related. Or repeatedly claiming that five or six studies support your tax plan even though three of the initial five weren't even studies (two were WSJ op-eds by campaign advisors) and none of them lend support to his tax plan as we now know it to be.

Lot_49

If we're going to include WSJ op-Ed writers, we may have to expand the definition of "liar."

sullivanst

I think we'll get 'em all with my definition, but we might need a bigger boat.

ETA: although, you might have a point in that most of them seem not in the slightest to know what they're saying most of the time.

Yeah, I think he might be factually mistaken in his assertion that calling somebody a liar "dates to the sleazy world of fascist and totalitarian propaganda in the 1930s." I'm thinking it dates back a little further than that.

Truly. Team Chimpy and the GOP – the same folks who brought us rigged elections, warrantless searches, torture, detention without trial, and smearing of critics as traitors.

Lot_49

Let's look at Hopey's record in this regard. Pretty sure the warrantless searches are still going on, and Gitmo's still open for business (although Barry tried to close it, even if not very hard). Torture's "officially" over, and the Dems don't call their opponents traitors. So far so good. The death-from-above drone kills won't garner him another trip to Stockholm, though.

Really, Nazis again? Even the most basic statements, like pointing out that Romney is a lying liar who lies, is somehow being just like Hitler. With the Wall Street Journal, I guess you always go full Godwin.

AbandonHope_

At the same time, this jibes really well with the observation that whatever Republicans accuse you of doing/being is what they are themselves. It's the most uncanny case of mass projection I've ever seen.

Yes, because having an entire fucking king sized bed to yourself is such a joy….

SorosBot

And everyone who negotiates (or just advocates negotiating) with a foreign leader the right doesn't like is Neville Chamberlain at Munich.

Toomush_Infer

This is because of the unerring American disposition for war talk ( I got that from Rachel Maddow's Drift)…(snark back on)…

eggsacklywright

War talk? I prefer Bartok.

TavariousChinaSmith

Lies (and the lying liars who tell them) by Senator Al Franken is like the Mein Kampf of liberalism.

WhatTheHolyHeck

His scrawled "What a dick!" over a GOP-skewed GDP graph is one of the funniest things I've ever seen.

Goonemeritus

Not calling Mitt a liar takes way to many linguistic acrobatics. I’m sure F. Scott Fitzgerald could characterize his performance in less directed words but for me I’m sticking with Liar.

sullivanst

Mendacious, disseminator, untruthful, distortion artist; after that I'd have to go in search of thesaurus.com

ETA: "not leader, a misleader" would be a nice line to use.

BlueStateLibel

Bill Clinton didn't "lie his way out of military service," he was an objector against the war. Willard on the other hand, thought it was just fine that others fight in Vietnam for him while he took off for the perils of France.

SorosBot

Well trying to convince the French to give up wine, cigarettes and coffee is very perilous.

GregComlish

not to mention fucking

Not_Mother

With all of that foie gras and Roquefort, and without the ameliorating effects of red wine, he did risk high cholesterol and gout.

BadKitty904

Not to mention the Beret Threat…

zumpie

But why didn't Obama serve in Nam, hmmmmm????

Lot_49

Wait a minute…guys who went to jail or Canada or got truly religious-based conscientious objector status (like Quakers) "objected" to the war. But when he came to the confidence course of military service, Bill took the pussy path around it. I love him as much as anybody, but he weaseled out of conscription when others opposed it honorably.

BlueStateLibel

It was my understanding he objected to the war. Chickenhawks like Dubya, Cheney and Willard on the other hand were all for it, as long as it was other people fighting it, so that's the difference I see.

Lot_49

All true. Guess I just like to stickle.

tessiee

Hee hee hee
Quit it!
Hee hee!

Lot_49

You know you love being stickled"

Gleem McShineys

Lot_49's resurrection of “stickle” as a political tool is odious because it has such a repellent pedigree. It dates to the sleazy world of fascist and totalitarian propaganda in the post just above.

Well Willard is showing as much remorse over his lies as Jerry Sandusky has shown concerning his buggering.

Lot_49

Or "spawn of polygamists"?

Oblios_Cap

I'm always amazed how some people appear to believe that all previous American political campaigns have always involved the highest sportsmanship and civil discourse. In reality, that would be the exception, rather than the rule, all the way back to the founding of the Republic.

The same is true of our Vaunted Impartial, Ethical Journalistic Golden Age, which did not seem to exist until people started handing out journalism degrees.

Damn it, even with that jerkface on it, I burn for buttery, golden toast!!

BaldarTFlagass

The zoo has mountain lion, the Republican Party has a Lyin' Moron.

Dang, I wished that flowed a little better.

Toomush_Infer

Try drinking earlier in the day – it loosens up the pipes…

freakishlywrong

How about we have a Simpson's style shocker/buzzer every time one of these fuckers lie. Dr. Marvin Monroe can design it.

tessiee

Modify it so that it also shocks Mitt when he runs overtime, and you're on.

MistaEko

The Obama campaign’s resurrection of “liar” as a political tool is odious because it has such a repellent pedigree.

i.e., we don't like it because it's working.

BoroPrimorac

We don't like it because all the shit Mitt lied about during the debate is coming home to roost.

MacRaith

Ahem.

"You lie!"

I rest my case.

Lot_49

Nailed it!

Roy Hobbson

Quit calling people liars, FAUXBAMA! That is gutter politics, and besides, you weren't even born here.

prommie

My head is fucking spinning and I cannot think straight at all. And then, because this is a pre-existing condition, I have to read this shit which ups the head-spinning ante. I am snarkless here, on this right hear. Is this a reverse Godwin's Law callout fake spin move? Mau-mauing the flack-catchers? Pre-emptive Godwinning? I am not going to sit here and listen to someone badmouth the United States of America! That alien kenyan socialist anti-colonialist who lacks the background to understand the special anglo-saxon-ness of Amurrica has the gall to call me an "other?" That black Kenyan socialist Nazi! Aaarrrggghhhhhh! I can't wwait till tomorrow, this shit won't be able to get at me then.

coolhandnuke

The check's in the mail.
I'll pull it out.
Just two beers officer.
I read the Wall Street Journal.
Romney is human.

oenspiek

'Liar' is a vile, obscene, four-letter word! Of course, that only applies if someone uses the term on an 'R'.

To be a liar is to know the truth and speak the opposite. A bullshitter, on the other hand, doesn't give a damn what the truth is and just says what's expedient. The Republicans are not liars; they're bullshitters.

fatbob54

In all fairness, couldn't they be lying bullshitters, or bullshitting liars?

"Shitweasel" is a fine way of thanking him for his service!! Bad as things are, would you really want to live in the alternate universe where Obama didn't get elected?!

AbandonHope_

Oh God. A world where we've all been conscripted to fight in McCain's Wars Against Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, Egypt, Libya, Terror, Islam, Gays, And Countries And Concepts To Be Named Later.

tessiee

"McCain"?
Grandpa McCain would have, er-uh… "died in his sleep"… a month after taking office, and we'd right now all be looking at…
I can't bring myself to type the words, even in jest.

Biff

I CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!!11!

zumpie

So I has confused: Mittens called the Prez a liar to his face several times in the debate. And has Label currently talking about the Prez is a liar on the camapign trail. This is totes cool. But fact checking Romney (and calling him on it or even asking him about it) is teh evil.

Also too, BONUS!!! Which is the moar terrible: Calling someone who has clearly lied a liar, suppressing someone's "free speech" by laughing at them when they say stupid shit or living in Paris in the 1960's so others can fight the war you claimto support by are dodging?

Think horseshoes, only instead of heavy metal objects flinging through the air, little pouches of PVC pellets or dried beans and instead of a manly rigid pole to ring them around, a piece of plywood with holes drilled into it.

Crank_Tango

Ah yeah, like Toss Across, but not so complicated. Politics IS more butch than that, this guy is right.

GunToting[Redacted]

Isn't that game called "cornhole?"

This suddenly makes more sense.

StillGoinGreen

I loved this piece by Daniel Henninger. I found it unbiased and insightful, not to mention tastefully provocative…

Oops, sorry – I LIED!!!

mbobier

Hmmmmm….. Obama is leading in the real polls, and he's gaining ground by calling out Mittens' lies, so the wingnuts are trying to declare the word "liar" off-limits — just as, now that we have a black President, it's off-limits to point out the racist things that people say and do and call them racist, because it isn't the actual racist stuff that's racist — it's CALLING it racist that's racist. Obviously. Got it!

I'm thinking the President should walk out on the stage at the next debate, punch Mittens in his smirking face (with votes!!!), and say, "That's for all the lies you told at the first debate, you lying liar from Lieville. Now — wanna lie to me some more?"

Shorter Mitt: "As you all know, I lied my ass off during the first debate and got away with it, so now I think lying my ass off and getting away with it is my rightful due. So please stop calling me on my shit, mmmmkay?"

Accusing Romney of lying is an assault against his religious freedom. For shame.

TootsStansbury

Unfuckingbelievable.

CommieLibunatic

It's still early in the day, Wonkette. Can we talk about the other L-word for a change?

tessiee

"LIAR! LIAR!! LIAR!!"
"Settle down, Beavis!"

tessiee

Because it's not like the Republicans have repeatedly referred to President Obama as a "Lyin' African", or anything.
Oh, wait…

chascates

Political correctness hits the WSJ.

tessiee

"It takes two to lie: One to lie and one to listen." — Homer Simpson

tessiee

[folksy]
Now I'm just a simple Jersey girl, and I ain't no expert on the politics…
[adjusts suspenders]
But it does seem to me that if you don't want people labeling you a "goat fucker", you probably shouldn't fuck goats in public, get *caught* fucking goats in public, and have fact checkers on both sides *prove* that you make a constant habit of fucking goats in public.
[spits]
Leastaways, that's what we used to say 'round the pizzeria.

Limeylizzie

It's not often that I read a Wonkette piece and say to myself "Wow, that is a pretty terrific piece of writing ", but I did just now. Hmmm. Well done Wonkette, I guess?

BoroPrimorac

It's cute that this douche bag thinks Mitt didn't lie.

hagajim

I think Barry Bammz oughtta just stone cold ask Mitt why his majik undies aren't on fire in the next debate, because you know – liar, liar pants on fire.